Now is the time to double down on Snapchat to reach younger users.

Not a day passes without a marketer proclaiming their departure from Snapchat.

No one is there.

Everyone’s on Instagram Stories.

Snapchat is dying.

These are just some of the reasons you hear within the marketing community. So, should you leave Snapchat’s 191 million daily active users, many of whom are teenagers exclusive to Snapchat and thus cannot be reached on other platforms?

Absolutely not. Instead, celebrate every time a competitor leaves Snapchat as an opportunity to grow your brand.

Get ahead of your competition.

A study by Clutch and Smart Insights found that 89 percent of businesses are on Facdebook, 83 percent are on LinkedIn, 80 percent are on Twitter and 56 percent are on Instagram. However, just 21 percent of companies have Snapchat accounts. This creates a huge opportunity for your brand to reach new customers.

Whether you are building a following organically or utilizing Snap Ads, make sure your content on Snapchat is fun and engaging. Start following accounts of the brands you love (and not necessarily those of your competitors) and take a note of the tools, techniques and type of content they use to engage with their followers.

Experiment with the types of Snaps you share, ask for and pay attention to feedback from your followers, and double down on the content that generates the most engagement and results. This will help you better refine your future strategy and get ahead of your competitors by connecting and building relationships with your core audience on Snapchat.

Reach a younger demographic.

Snapchat is often described as confusing by “grownups” — and that’s intentional.

Snapchat designed its app in a way that is fun for teenagers to explore and use, and data demonstrates that the company is doing a great job keeping its younger users engaged. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center study, 78 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat. Comparatively, only 45 percent use Twitter.

Understanding this specific appeal to a younger audience will allow you to better cater your Snaps. Don’t simply show your product or add a call to action to every Snap. Tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end, and craft a sequence of photos and videos using the Snapchat tools that help you tell that story.

Don’t forget to make your stories fun, playful and engaging. Again, there are lots of awesome accounts to follow and learn from (to get started, check out Everlane, Cisco or even NASA).

Show the human side of your brand.

Have you ever wondered why Facebook and Instagram algorithm changes keep marketers up at night and, most importantly, why Facebook is constantly making these changes? They do it to help users see more of their friends’ posts because they are more human and genuine, versus robotic and click-bait type of posts that tend to dominate companies’ pages.

By design, Snapchat avoids this mistake. Each Snap is about having fun, being in the moment and showing the “human,” playful side of the brand. This means Snapchat users get a real look at the company — as long as you let your company show this more vulnerable side through your snaps.

One way to ensure the authenticity of your Snapchat marketing is to focus on educating your audience about your brand rather than jumping straight into selling your product. (Don’t worry, you can always promote through product drops and other ecommerce features.)

Additionally, communicate the issues your customers can related to and your brand about cares most.

Most importantly, entertain your followers and have fun while creating Snaps!

Keep followers where you want them.

Marketing is about getting people to engage with your brand. The longer they spend doing that, the better the sales results.

Unfortunately, traditional social media platforms often require followers to take extra steps to continue viewing content. They have to click links that take them to a new site or go to a digital store to buy products.

Snapchat, however, is designed to keep followers on the platform for longer. It has created new ways to integrate the brand’s content with ecommerce features while staying within the app. For example, Snapchat, Nike and Darkstore teamed up in February to pre-release the Air Jordan “Tinker” shoes. By scanning a snapcode displayed on the backboard at an exclusive event, guests could buy the shoes not available elsewhere from within Snapchat. Needless to say, the shoes sold out within less than half an hour.

Snapchat has also created ways for users to explore brands and their locations, including initiating phone calls, making restaurant reservations or getting an Uber from within the app. These are just few of the opportunities that you can take advantage of as a brand within the Snapchat experience.

Whether you’re an experienced Snapchat marketer or someone who’s testing the waters for an early stage company that wants to reach a young audience, there are ways to make your brand shine on Snapchat. Snapchat is a land of untapped opportunities, so get on before it’s too late.

Article written by: Inna Semenyuk